Newsletter headings of "Mercury"

In 2025, Francisk Skorina Gomel State University celebrates a significant date – the 95th anniversary of its foundation. This anniversary is an important event in the history of the university, demonstrating its sustainable development and ability to meet the challenges of the modern educational space.

Beyond providing academic programs, today GSU confidently asserts itself on the international stage. Currently, there are 2042 students from 20 countries of the world including Turkmenistan, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Russia. This is not just statistics. It is proof of a high level of trust in the quality of Belarusian education.

In 2024, the university's export of educational services amounted to $3,79 million and $4.33 million including tourism and knowledge-intensive services. These figures confirm the competitiveness of GSU in the global market of educational services.

The university is actively developing cooperation with universities in China. Thus, joint educational programs are being implemented in Russian philology with the Shanghai Institute of Industry, Commerce and Foreign Languages, and in Physics with Heze University.

Great emphasis is placed on innovative approaches. A prime example is the experimental project "Implementation of a model for integrating the undergraduate programs of the Republic of Belarus with non-university higher education programs in China in a shortened period." Currently, 181 citizens of the PRC are studying within the framework of its implementation. This project allows graduates of higher colleges in China to obtain a bachelor's degree in a shortened time. Chinese students are studying under integrated curricula in the specialties Business Administration, Accounting, Analysis and Audit, Psychology, and Automated Information Processing Systems.

Overall, the university's network of international contacts covers 33 countries and includes 187 active cooperation agreements. The geography is broad, ranging from Russia and Uzbekistan to Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

The Confucius Institute has been operating at the university since 2017. More than 200 students attend Chinese language courses here, which indicates a growing interest in Chinese culture.

Deep integration with China is also evident in the scientific sphere. Two joint Belarusian-Chinese laboratories operate at Gomel State University: one focuses on vacuum-plasma technologies, and the other on metamaterials and multifunctional coatings. The partners are leading Chinese universities: Nanjing University of Science and Technology and Beijing University of Technology.

As part of the scientific research conducted at the Belarusian-Chinese laboratories, a method has been developed for forming carbon-based coatings aimed at increasing the wear resistance of working surfaces of cutting, metalworking, and woodworking tools. The design of layered diamond-like and antibacterial composite coatings has been experimentally substantiated. Experimental samples of metasurfaces have been produced for potential use in optoelectronics in the development of radiation sensors, fiber-optic system switches, indicators, as well as an experimental sample of a multifunctional metamaterial that simultaneously performs the functions of a cross-polarization total reflector, a transmitting cross-polarizer, and an efficient "invisible" absorber.

The results of these studies are applied by the university in its own operations to provide services under contracts with enterprises and organizations of the Republic of Belarus, such as UE “Alkopak”, the Scientific Research institution "Institute of Nuclear Problems" BSU, LLC “Vaktime”, LLC “Medbiotech”, and others.

In 2025, the university is participating in 12 international scientific projects. Five of them are being carried out with Russian partners, four with Chinese, and three with Uzbek partners. These projects focus on studying the structure of finite and periodic groups; developing complex oxide films for photosensitive structures in the short-wavelength range; creating antibacterial composite sol-gel coatings, 3D-integrated metasurfaces and millimeter-wave antennas for B5G/6G applications, as well as perovskite 3D/2D solar cells; and researching modern geodynamic activity in areas under anthropogenic stress using remote sensing of the Earth.

Cooperation with the Russian Federation is distinguished by its practical orientation. For example, at the request of the company “KRIN” (Chelyabinsk region), a technology was developed for producing ultra-pure silicon dioxide, a key material in the semiconductor and optoelectronics industries. At the request of LLC “ENGRA” (Tomsk), a method was developed for modifying the surface of silicon dioxide with silane and tetraethoxysilicate; methods of silicon dioxide particle aggregation were also studied.

In addition, innovative products developed within the university are exported to Russia, particularly to Bryansk. These include polishing slurries for high-precision processing of silicon wafers.

Francisk Skorina Gomel State University holds high positions in international rankings. In January 2025, the university ranked 3rd among Belarusian higher education institutions in the Webometrics ranking and 3557th out of more than 32,000 universities worldwide.

·        The university also holds strong positions in other international rankings:

·        UniRank – 3957th in the world, 6th in Belarus;

·        MosIUR – ranked among the top 1401–1500 universities worldwide;

·        Scimago Institutions Rankings – 9th in Belarus and 8678th globally;

·        QS EECA – listed among the top 300 universities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia;

·        THE Impact Rankings – ranked in the 1501+ group under the “Quality of Education” criterion.

A particular point of pride is the university's national leadership in the subject area of Mathematics. At Francisk Skorina Gomel State University, research is successfully conducted in the field of "Mathematics and the modeling of complex functional systems," which is being developed by the renowned Gomel school of algebraists. Among the contributors are not only researchers from the university itself but also from other universities in Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk, and Polotsk.

In this field, the university maintains close ties with mathematical research communities in countries such as Russia, China, Spain, Germany, the United States, Hungary, and others. A significant portion of the university's scientific publications that help it maintain leading positions in many international rankings comes from the work of the Gomel algebraic school.

The university is also actively involved in the work of international organizations. It is a member of the following international university associations: the Eurasian Association of Universities, the Eurasian Association of Pedagogical Universities, and the China-Belarus University Association.

The university is also a member of the consortium "Russian-Belarusian University Union “VMESTE”, established on the basis of Pskov State University.

Together with its Russian partner universities, Francisk Skorina Gomel State University has co-organized various youth events, including the Union State Festival-Meeting of patriotic associations, the International Russian-Belarusian Olympiad "VMESTE", a science-popularization project within the framework of youth and student tourism across the EAEU and CIS, and the International Multi-Olympiad "Mathematics and Programming Technologies."